Cheap Leather and a bookless Library
by Iween-Felton
Summary: DracoHermione-PG 13-Post hogwarts-Hermione works in St. Mungo's and Harry's an auror. Draco hasn't been heard of since graduation, but who's behind the missing of ministers of magic from other countries?
1. A bit modified

A/N: Hi peoples! This is my VERY FIRST fanfiction! Lovin' the Draco/Hermione ship forever… despite what JKR says. Yup, please review! Anything's welcome… even flames! I want my story to be the best it can be… because I really don't have experience. Tell me all the bad stuff you could find about it… just tell me! Yup, tell me everything, really. (lol) I've written the second chapter already… so… please, just tell me! I really want to know what my story… if it's good or not. Please please please! BTW!!! This is DEFINITELY a Draco/Hermione fanfic… it's not normal for Draco and Hermione to run together and start kissing. ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

_'Tap tap tap'_

Hermione tore her eyes away from the clean parchment beneath her quivering quill. 

"Come in." she sighed.

_'Tap tap tap'_

"Come in." She repeated a little louder. 

_'Tap tap tap'_

Hermione groaned in frustration. '_Who the in the world is this?'_ she thought. Lifting herself off the leather chair's armrests, she glided across the few feet that separated her desk and her office door and swung it open. 

"What on earth… " Hermione rubbed her temples lightly. Not even a ghost appeared before her door, or anywhere near it. 

"Must be working too hard." She whispered to herself. 

_'Tap tap tap'_ She spun around quickly and finally located where the "knocking" came from. A brown barn owl was desperately trying to keep up with her window's height. 

"Oh!" yelped Hermione. She quickly walked to the window and let the owl in. It hooted in anger when Hermione tried to untie the envelope that was tied to its leg. 

"I'm terribly sorry. I'll give you a rat, alright?" She turned around and pointed her want to a nearby quill.

"Vera Verto," she mumbled. The owl swooped the rat up and took off. Hermione sat down and ripped the envelope open. She recognized Harry's neat chicken scratch anywhere.

_My sweet little bookworm,_

_How's work? I'm being murdered with it here. _'Quite the same here I could assure you.' Hermione thought. _I'm almost buried in the pile of stuff I've got to do _'Tell me about it!' she mumbled. _Anyway, that means that I have to go O.T. _(A/N: Over time) _tonight. So sorry hun! I swear I'll make it back to you, alright? Saturday for sure. No distractions, no work, no friends. Just you and me babe. Don't have to wait for me tonight, alright? Muah._

_Love, _

_Your fiancé._

Hermione felt a pang of hurt; not that she wasn't expecting it. Harry had sent her these kinds of messages at the end of the day for quite a while now. Even if Harry had the time to pry himself from his time hogging job, Hermione would be the one that needed to work overtime. On weekends, Harry would go out with friends, or have many errands to run. If not, then Hermione would need to visit her parents, or work. It had been a very stressful few years for the both of them.

Much had happened after their seventh year of Hogwarts. Hermione had become one of the most successful Healers in Britain. She landed on the fourth floor of St. Mungo's after acquiring 12 N.E.W.T.s.  Her best subject in Hogwarts was Charms, not that every other class she took received marks that were much different. Even though she'd applied for the spell damage department, Hermione was called into the other 3 floors as she'd majored in those. This is what kept her so preoccupied. 

Harry had been accepted as an auror before he'd even applied to the ministry. No explanation required there. If necessary, he'd really go on hunts for mischievous wizards or witches, but those only happened once every blue moon. Despite the lack of thrills and adventures, Harry for some reason was content with the way things were going. Ginny by the way had earned a spot as an auror in training, coincidentally having the instructor as Harry, so it wasn't all that bad. 

After another exhausting day of brewing potions and unbinding spells, Hermione just wanted to go home (A/N: Harry's home, btw) and fall asleep in Harry's arms. It was no surprise that Hermione had fallen for his warm green eyes and ruffled raven hair in their first year of Hogwarts; though the shocking part was that Harry had fallen for Hermione in their second year when he'd almost lost her. His bravery ceased to live up to itself until grad night. Harry asked Hermione out under the stars of the Quidditch field while everyone else partied in the great hall, and elsewhere. After that night, the Daily Prophet had yet to not deliver the love life of The-Boy-Who-Lived to every house in wizarding Britain. Hermione started to receive 10 times as many howlers and prank-owls than she got in fourth year. 

But since then, just a few years had slipped by, and Hermione now wore the run Harry had proposed to her in Madame Puddifoot's around a year ago. St. Mungo's had always insisted on intercepting all of Hermione's owls and checking them, just in case they were life threatening; Hermione was a too useful for St. Mungo's to lose. 

She looked up at the clock that hung on the wall facing her. It was 5:15pm, and Hermione had stayed longer than necessary. 

"Merlin's Beard, finally!" she whispered, relieved. She quickly changed out of her lime-green robes and took a final glance at her gold plated door that she was about to lock. _Healer Granger's office_ was engraved, shining as brightly as the first time she'd seen it. 

"See you tomorrow, Cho!" Hermione bid to the welcomewitch. 

"Good-day, Hermione. Oh, wait! You've forgotten to get your Daily Prophet this morning." Cho said back. 

"Ah, it's okay. Thanks though." said Hermione.

"Erm, I have a feeling that you might want to read it if you're not too busy tonight." replied Cho. Hermione sighed in defeat. 

"Alright, I'll read it tonight. Thanks again, Cho." she said. Hermione was going to go to her own home for what felt like… forever, now. She'd always gone to Harry's house everyday before they'd both been piled up with excessive amounts of work. Hermione squished though the thong of people waiting to get off the tube at their designated stops. She didn't live outside of London; she only needed to stop two times before she'd have to push through the crowd again. 

Hermione lived in a muggle condo, which she preferred over a house. It was more affordable than a house, and she always felt secure because of its cosiness. Some things just never changed though; her walls gave off a soft glow of yellowish-gold, and the pouffy red couches that sat on a velvet auburn carpet  gave off more than a hint of Hermione's Gryffindor-ness that still remained somewhere in her soul.

After a quick shower and dinner, Hermione sat down for what seemed like the first time that month. She'd been so caught up n work that her mind just never stopped to rest. She woke up at 7am, rushed to work and got there at 9am, got home at 5pm, showered, ate, and thought of ways to treat her current and potential patients. If she wasn't at home after work then she'd be at Harry's; it was never a relaxing time besides the mere hours of sleep that she got. This was her normal schedule, unfortunately.

Having no critical patients to think about, Hermione remembered the day's Daily Prophet that Cho had handed to her earlier. She thought of the last time that she'd been advised to look at the paper a few years ago; which was not long after her graduation. Lucius Malfoy was found blasted into pieces in Knockturn Alley. _'Served him right'_ Hermione thought. She couldn't help but wonder what had happened to his son though. Hermione assumed that Draco would be mentioned of inheriting the whole Malfoy fortune, but no one knew what'd happened to him, and Narcissa Malfoy had taken over the offer.

Hermione lifted the Daily Prophet up to her face. Reading the headline for what felt like the millionth time, it finally sunk in. 

"Merlin's bloody beard." escaped as a breath that she wasn't aware of holding.

TBC

Please review, guys! 


	2. Shocking news

Hi everybody! New chapter... okay it's not really done, but erm, yeah, I'm just gona be putting bits and pieces in at a time... but if you guys want chapters at a time, then just tell me in your next post, alright? Anyway, remember to tell me if I'm going WAY too slow or not, because I really think I am. Maybe I should speed it up... hehe. Anyway, enjoy!

_Previously on CLBL...___

_Having no critical patients to think about, Hermione remembered the day's Daily Prophet that Cho had handed to her earlier. She thought of the last time that she'd been advised to look at the paper a few years ago; which was not long after her graduation. Lucius Malfoy was found blasted into pieces in Knockturn Alley.  'Served him right' Hermione thought. She couldn't help but wonder what had happened to his son though. Hermione assumed that Draco would be mentioned of inheriting the whole Malfoy fortune, but no one knew what'd happened to him, and Narcissa Malfoy had taken over the offer._

_Hermione lifted the Daily Prophet up to her face. Reading the headline for what felt like the millionth time, it finally sunk in. _

_"Merlin's bloody beard." escaped as a breath that she wasn't aware of holding._

Here we go with the first bit of chapter 2...

Hermione picked up the paper again. 

"**Ministry in a sense of being threatened**!" The headline screamed. 

"An anonymous letter was sent to the Ministry of Magic today, saying only 2 words: WATCH OUT. Can this mean that we have a new enemy? Are we in danger? Despite the lack of words, this might mean a lot. A few believe that it's but a mere prank, but nay think not. The letter was void of retracking abilities, and no one knows how it got on the desk the Minister of Magic, the cowardly Cornelius Fudge. Besides his utter lack of leadership and wise thinking, it is a miracle that Fudge is still MoM

Even though this was on the front page for the mere sake of gossip (A/N: or is it?) Hermione had a bad feeling about it. It was odd that she was so surprised when she first read about it. She was reminded of the words that were meant for her in second year; something that went along the lines of _'You'll be next, mudbloods..._' ...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hermione woke Saturday morning to the impatient tapping on her window.

"Bloody owls... " she murmured. It was a letter from Harry; they were to beet in two hours at the Three Broomsticks for breakfast. _ 'How did he get up so early after working O.T?.'_ she wondered to herself as she glanced at her clock tat struck 7:50.

Hermione took a quick shower and threw a towel on.

"Hmm, what to wear?" Hermione asked her closet. She was very well aware of her irresistible body that formed under her black robes that she wore over the years of attending Hogwarts. After that, she'd adored shopping and had to magically expand her closet to fit in all her clothes that she owned. It was a sweet September Saturday; she'd wear a flowy beige skirt and a plain, white, flesh wrapping tank top that defined her beautiful curves.

When Hermione stepped into the familiar pub, Harry waved to her from the back corner. 

"A butterbeer so early in the morning?" Hermione joked with a hint of concern.

"Good morning too you too, honey." Harry replied without answering the initial question. Hermione let out a small giggle.

"You know it's not good for you. And don't tell me it's nothing much! Anyway, I read about the thread at the ministry yest-"

"Merlin's beard! It's everywhere in the wizarding media… like it's just something to gossip about. The Ministry's going crazy though; we can't find out who write it." Harry interrupted. _'Hmm'_ Hermione nodded. Not wanting to tell Harry about the queasiness she felt about it, she changed the subject.

"So what are we going to do today?" lingered off her lips. Hermione never got the answer to it though; a man was selling versions of the day's Daily Prophet and had caught Harry's attention before Hermione's question got to him. 

"Sir! Two here please!" Harry shouted. The couple handed the man 3 sickles each. 

"Bloody hell… " Harry mumbled. Things were definitely odd. The Ministers of Magic of Canada, United States, France, and China were reported missing; all 4 of them in the course of one night.

"Now the Ministry's officially going crazy." Harry sighed. Hermione couldn't believe this; it had to all be a joke. Whatever was happening was definitely not a coincidence, but it surely had to be some kind of prank. This was totally unbelievable. Maybe this was really a coincidence of some sort, or maybe Hermione's uneasiness was trying to tell her something. All of a sudden, witches and wizards seated in the pub started debating and talking animatedly. 

"This surely has to be some sort of a joke… " Hermione said aloud.

To be continued~! Ah, tell me all the stupid stuff about my story, tell me please! I think I'm going way too slow though. Cut back on the details? I don't know. This is my first time writing a fanfic, so… if it's stupid; don't hesitate to let me know, alright? I want all of your input! 


	3. Unexpected events

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. 

A/N: Hey guys! I've finally written the third chapter; it wasn't really a writer's block, but I couldn't find a way to write this out. But it came out to be readable, so yup. Thanks for the 3 reviews guys! It's only a few, but it got me writing the third chapter. Look out for the A/N at the end of the chapter, okay? So without further adieu, on with the story!

_Previously on CLBL:_

"Now the Ministry's officially going crazy." Harry sighed. Hermione couldn't believe this; it had to all be a joke. Whatever was happening was definitely not a coincidence, but it surely had to be some kind of prank. This was totally unbelievable. Maybe this was really a coincidence of some sort, or maybe Hermione's uneasiness was trying to tell her something. All of a sudden, witches and wizards seated in the pub started debating and talking animatedly. 

"This surely has to be some sort of a joke… " Hermione said aloud.

Chapter 3 – Unexpected events

Hermione found herself by … herself once again. Harry and she were very rudely interrupted by an owl that had flown into one of the restaurant's windows and landed in Hermione's breakfast. It was from the Ministry; ordering Harry to go back at once. Harry seemed a bit too sorry, but Hermione forgave him all the same.

Strolling down Diagon Alley, Hermione remembered the days when she'd rush to get her school supplies before September 1st came. _'Seems just like yesterday,_' she thought.

The weekend passed by as usual. Harry didn't owl Hermione back which was odd, but it made no difference. Hermione spent Sunday shopping with her mother and having dinner with her parents. That night, she wandered home, not remember the journey at all and fell into a dreamless sleep.

The next few days passed without notice, or any bizarre events; unless if you call trying to heal a lady who'd transfigured herself into a coffee table normal. September slipped by briskly, and autumn started showing itself.

On the second Monday of October, Hermione for some reason felt extremely jovial. 

"Hi Cho!" she greeted as she walked though the window of the so-called abandoned department store.

"Hey Hermione! Looks like you woke up on the right side of the bed this morning huh?" Cho asked. Hermione smiled back.

"Just happy to heal people." she replied. Hermione hummed to herself as she walked up the stairs to the fourth floor. Just as she opened her office door, she saw Hedwig approaching her window. "Haven't heard from you for a bit" she mumbled as she unwrapped Hedwig's leg. Hedwig flew off almost immediately.

_Dear Hermione, _

_Hey sweetums! I'm sorry about last time, and I'm sorry that we haven't been in touch for a while. I'm in quite a hurry right now; the ministry's picked me and a few others to investigate the case of the missing ministers. Only a few aurors from a few countries only. Anyway, I'll make it up to you when I get back, alright? They're in such a hurry, they wanted us to leave tomorrow morning. Sorry hun!_

_Love, Harry_

Hermione sighed. It wouldn't make a big difference, would it? He couldn't be gone for long, right? Hermione's jubilant mood shifted slightly; she didn't have a great feeling about this.

*** 

The morning brushed by as she was very busy. Despite the distractions and events, Hermione's thoughts kept going back to Harry's letter. While taking her morning break, she'd decided to surprise Harry and pick him up from work and spend the last night with him before he had to go the next morning. 

She'd decided to take the afternoon off after lunch. Hermione went to Hogsmeade to buy a few things for Harry; mainly candy from Honeydukes. '_He'd love them,' _she smiled to herself. '_This better be enough.'_ she muttered as she looked into the bag; she had to charm it to fit all of the candy in, and a few 'reparo''s were repeated before that. 

Hermione squeezed into the telephone booth that would bring her underground to the ministry. She picked up the receiver and pressed 62442. A cool female voice sounded inside of the telephone box.

"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business." it said. 

"Hermione Granger, Healer at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, to see Harry Potter, Auror Headquarters." Hermione answered. 

"Thank you." said the cool female voice. "Visitor, please take the badge and attach it to the front of your robes."  There was a click and a rattle, and Hermione quickly jammed her hand into a slot and pinned the badge on her shirt. She was required to register at the far end of the Atrium when she got to the bottom. It was about 6:30pm now, and Harry would've been off work ½ an hour ago. '_He never leaves on time,'_ she thought.

As she stepped into the lift, she noticed that there weren't any witches, wizards, or flying memos in it. '_Guess no one likes to linger around after work'_ she thought. The cool female voice started as the lift doors opened. "Level Two, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, including the Improper Use of Magic Office, Auror Headquarters and Wizengamot Administration Services.' 

As Hermione stepped off the elevator, she immediately took notice of the enchanted underground windows which had a stormy and dark day splattering upon them. Candles around were dimly lit. The place had an eerie feel to it. Her neatly shaped eyebrows furrowed. '_Magical Maintenance probably wants a pay rise again_' she thought. She turned a corner, walked through a pair of heavy oak doors and emerged in a faintly visible cluttered open area divided into cubicles, which was silent all but muffling that came a long way from the back.

Hermione walked along a row slowly, silent footsteps weighing on the carpet. And there it was; no one could mistaken that flaming red hair for anything else, even in the dark, especially contrasted by black raven hair. Hermione let out a shriek and dropped the bag of candy with a thud. 

Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter, entangled within each other.

A/N: Okay, this is definitely… ok a lot of OotP spoilers there. Please tell me in your review if you've read Order of the Phoenix yet! The part where Hermione goes to the ministry… it's exactly what's in OOTP; the part where Harry's going to the ministry. And the part where Hermione's walking down the row, and when she passes the heavy oak doors, directly from OOTP. Yup so… is it still called plagiarism even if I said that I took it from another book? The stairs thing… remember when Hermione got off work from the first chapter? I didn't mention if she went down an elevator or the stairs right? Welp I read OOTP over, and it seems to me that there aren't any lifts (that were mentioned) in St. Mungo's. And the lady and the coffee table (lol) it's from Which Witch? By Eva Ibbotson. It's cool book. 

Anyway, please please PLEASE review, will you? Could you please tell me something that you don't like about the story? Thanks for the previous reviews! They meant a lot!

PS: This is definitely going to be a Draco/Hermione story… it's just taking a bit of time.

PSS: Um, tell me if I'm going a tad too slow, will you? And I think I'm talking about Hermione too much here… but I don't really like Harry though… ack!

To be continued…


	4. Final words

A/N: Hi everybody!!! So stupid that I sound so happy; I haven't updated for like, almost 2 months!!! My deepest apologies... I've been sooooo lazy, and really not in the mood to write... like, I need that inspiration! Okay anyway, I've had the 4th and 5th written for so long already, when I was done the 3rd chapter, but I just didn't... feel like typing it up. Anyway, here's the 4th chapter. And about the going to the Ministry in the phone booth, I'm terribly sorry; at that time, I'd totally forgotten that Hermione could APPARATE! Lol, so yuppers. Btw, this chapter's dedicated to Hannah; the Hannah I haven't been in touch with for the longest time ever. Hope you're doing well!!!  
  
Previously on CLBL:  
  
As Hermione stepped off the elevator, she immediately took notice of the enchanted underground windows which had a stormy and dark day splattering upon them. Candles around were dimly lit. The place had an eerie feel to it. Her neatly shaped eyebrows furrowed. 'Magical Maintenance probably wants a pay rise again' she thought. She turned a corner, walked through a pair of heavy oak doors and emerged in a faintly visible cluttered open area divided into cubicles, which was silent all but muffling that came a long way from the back.  
  
Hermione walked along a row slowly, silent footsteps weighing on the carpet. And there it was; no one could mistaken that flaming red hair for anything else, even in the dark, especially contrasted by black raven hair. Hermione let out a shriek and dropped the bag of candy with a thud.  
  
Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter, entangled within each other.  
  
Chapter 4 – Cheap Leather and a bookless Library  
  
Ginny whimpered as a sense of Hermione's existence.  
  
"Uh... what?" Harry got out between the kisses. He looked over Ginny's shoulder. What he saw was something he'd never seen before; blazing chestnut brown eyes that almost had a hint of red glimmered fiercely against the poorly lit cubicle. Despite the tears welled up in them, shooting back at his alarmed green eyes were shock, disappointment, and hate. Harry had never seen such a version of eyes before throughout his over experienced life.  
  
"H-Hermione..." he managed to croak out.  
  
"H-H-Harry... Potter..." Hermione whispered, barely audible. Ginny whipped her head over in shock. Harry was so flabbergasted that he was speechless. The looks on the three of their faces were priceless.  
  
They gaped at each other unable to utter out a single word. Hermione couldn't stand seeing Harry with someone else. This had never happened to her before, and she was absolutely disappointed in Harry. She'd never expected this, never suspected it, and the thought of this scenario had never at the least bit crawled close to her mind.  
  
Ginny began to get off Harry (they were in his chair) and Hermione turned around to leave. She couldn't believe it; why'd Harry do this to her? What did she do wrong? Hermione's vision was severely blurred by the double up of tears. She was a little past ½ way down the row when someone harshly grabbed her wrist. She flung her head over, causing the droplet of tears splashing Harry's face.  
  
There she was again; losing herself in the same emerald green orbs she'd fallen for in first year. They were so war... she'd feel so happy and complete when she'd see them... not a thing in the world mattered... but not anymore.  
  
"Hermi-"  
  
"How could you do this to me, Harry?"  
  
"I... I... "  
  
"What did I do wrong? Was I noto good enough for you? The famous Harry Potter? Now I know-"  
  
"Hermione! You know I'm not like that! You've never said that to me before! That's only what Malfoy used to-"  
  
"You know, I really really believed you, trusted you... and-"  
  
"Hermione, I'm sorry."  
  
"No, Harry, I'm sorry. Sorry for never suspecting you! All those times you owled me about staying O.T. were lies... and all those times you stayed... you were with.... with... Ginny!" she spilled out, sobbing.  
  
"Look Hermione, listen-"  
  
"You've been spending so much time with Ginny... ALL your time with Ginny! You've lied to me; not just one time, but every time you've owled me! I cant' believe it, I can't believe you..."  
  
"Hermione, it's not like that..." Harry protested. Then what was it really like? Only a miracle could save Harry now. He knew it was like that, Ginny knew it was like that, and everyone did besides Hermione. Truth was, Hermione was right. Despite her abnormal intelligence, it didn't take the eighth world wonder to figure it out.  
  
Hermione looked in Harry's pleading green eyes. She knew that he wasn't this kind of person; she'd trusted him more than anything. She'd valued their friendship more than anything, but she'd never thought of Harry cheating on her.  
  
"You know what Harry?" she asked, his eyes begging her not to reply to her own question. "We hardly have any time for each other now, and things have gotten so out of hand... I think we should..." she sniffled and gave out a small sigh. "We don't work."  
  
Harry grabbed her wrist when she turned to leave again. "I'm sorry, Hermione. After all these years we've been through, you're just going to leave our relationship like this? We've been through so much, surely we can- "  
  
"It is because of all these years that I have turned weak!" she yelled back at him. "After all these years, how could you do this to me?!" she retorted.  
  
Harry was dumbfounded. Hermione easily used his own point against him, and no matter how hard he tried to rack his brain, he just couldn't think of anything else to say back before she started again.  
  
"Just forget it." she stated, and with a last look of pity and resentment, Hermione's skirt whipped away with a crack.  
  
A/N: Sorry about this A/N again, but for one of my friends *cough* Vuong *cough* she might not know what the crack meant, and it means that she apparated. Oh, and I'll try not to make the next update too long. Thanks for being with me guys! And please please review.  
  
Much love,  
  
Irene  
  
PS. For those of you who'd like me to email you when I update, please say so in your review! Thankies! 


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